Recipients of messages, such as voicemail messages, often desire to sort, group, and search messages. Some voicemail message systems provide the ability to sort, group, and search voicemail messages by calling number. Such systems may allow for identity grouping according to a caller identification associated with the calling number. However, if the sender of the message places the call from a different device than the one which is associated with the sender's identity, the system is typically unable to associate the message with the sender. Further, if a caller leaves a message from a location or device having an established identity, then the system may associate the message with the established identity as opposed to that of the actual caller. Moreover, if a voicemail message contains concatenated messages from multiple callers, then the system may only associate the identification of the forwarding device with the message rather than associating each of the individual callers with the message.
A partial solution is provided by extension mobility systems. Such communication systems allow the caller to associate a particular telephone extension with multiple phones. However, this system only allows such interoperability within an enterprise and will not work if the caller is at a customer's site or is using a public phone, cell phone, or home phone.